goldsmithrd_44295's blog

What an amazing Liberty Forum! It was motivating, educational, and exciting to engage with so many liberty lovers from all over the country. More than one third of our attendees were from out of state, and one quarter were visiting for the first time. What a great opportunity to see the event with fresh eyes. Thanks to Mel and Richard Gibson who put together a tremendous event, full of great speakers, controversial debate, and a full load of networking.

Of course, now that I have the stage, I also have the chance to thank the rest of our hard-working team. Every one of our lead coordinators worked their tails off to bring you a million dollar event. Christine Butler is as always her graceful and dignified self, even in the face of last minute Events Directing chaos. Mary Sorens battled the flu (!) and even in the face of that hard fought battle rocked out social media, spreading tweets (not germs) throughout the event. Chris Lopez managed off-site dinners (for the first year ever) bringing speakers closer to our attendees and activating 20 local volunteers to take on the task of hosting these unique gatherings. More...

“We are thrilled to welcome Rachel to this role,” said FSP founder and Chairman of the Board, Jason Sorens. “She has excellent operational skills and has expressed a commitment to continue to build and strengthen our growing community.”

Rachel has spent the last two years learning the ins and outs of the FSP, first as an event volunteer, and then as the Director of Operations. During this time, she was lead coordinator for sponsorships, developed recurring content to promote the FSP, and spearheaded outreach efforts. In addition to an MBA, Rachel’s professional background and business experience include fundraising, marketing, and event production. More...

Chip Spangler has been in NH since 2015, and has been an unstoppable force for liberty since long before that.

For over 15 years, Chip has been involved with the Libertarian Party: he was Chair of the Maryland LP, a party officer in Alaska, and currently serves as the Vice Chair for the Southern New Hampshire LP. Since moving to New Hampshire, Chip has been actively volunteering at both Liberty Forum and PorcFest as god of AV, Fr33Aid, and Logistics. He holds the key to our hearts, and also the storage unit.

But that’s not all! Every single month, Chip is the MC for two monthly meet-ups in Manchester. The first Saturday of the month you will find him at the mic for the Merrimack Valley Porcupine meet-up (check out the calendar for upcoming locations), and on the first Tuesday of the month he has rocked New Movers Parties, welcoming all the incoming Porcupines with big hugs and a big heart. Shout out to Patrick Donald Binder for taking over that role. You have big shoes to fill, my friend. More...

Types of Permits
Porcupine Real Estate often gets questions on zoning regulations in New Hampshire. Much like property taxes, zoning laws and ordinances vary from town to town. If you're considering a property and plan to do any major improvements like building a garage, putting livestock or other animals on the property, cutting down several trees, or something similar, you will want to check with the town before you proceed.

Town Permitting Processes
While each town has its own permitting process, if you're doing your own work on your house, the permit requirement is often waived. We recommend checking with your town to confirm prior to starting work.

The State and the Septic System
One exception to the permit process is septic systems, which are regulated on a statewide basis. If you're building a new system, you'll have to get state approval for the system regardless of the town. If you're building within the minimum setbacks of a body of water or wetlands, you'll need state approval. More...

My husband Jeremy and I are originally from two small towns in Western NY: Avon and Byron. We were looking for change in the spring of 2013 when we finally decided to move to Charleston, SC. By October 2014, we were settled in Charleston!

We were only in South Carolina for a few months before we first saw the 101 Reasons: Liberty Lives in New Hampshire documentary. We were both very intrigued, but we really thought Charleston was our new home. A few years went by, and after dealing with a few tornado scares, a hurricane, taxes going up, and a massive flood of people to a very SMALL area, we decided to move out of the Low Country and back up to the Northeast.

During the growing pains in Charleston, one place kept coming up in conversation: New Hampshire. We got married in Buffalo, NY, in October of 2016 and decided to have a mini-moon in Goffstown, NH, in a STUNNING Airbnb on Mount Uncanoonuc (we highly recommend it). We were hooked after that stay! We finally arrived in Manchester in June with our two cats. More...

Q. Prospective employers in NH won't even look at my résumé because it is clear I am living and working in Idaho right now. Is there anything I can do to get around this?
A. When hiring managers receive a résumé from an out-of- state candidate, several of their first concerns are almost always the time, costs, and logistics of hiring and transitioning that candidate. It is less costly and much faster and easier to interview and hire the local candidate. While this is less of an issue for job seekers pursuing very specialized or high-level, hard-to- fill positions, the bias will still fall in favor of the local candidate, all else being equal.

So, when you begin actively applying for positions and submitting your résumé, is there anything you can do to improve your chances of consideration?

While you don’t want to be deceitful in any way, there is no reason to advertise your current location.

Remove your current address from your résumé. Including a specific street address on your résumé has become far less common in recent years, so not including one on your résumé won’t raise any red flags. More...

I am a father, anarchist, minimalist, business owner, and systems engineer. I have traveled throughout the country, cruised around the Caribbean, and visited Europe. I have lived my whole life in the small town of Bergen, NY. It is a great community, with the unfortunate geographic issue of being located in the least free state in the country.

I have been searching for liberty my whole life, but for a while I didn’t know what that really meant. I never bought in to the political party system and division tactics. I never registered to vote or participated in this corrupt and manipulated system. The first half of my life, I ignored the political system as much as possible. It was 9/11 that shook me awake, and I realized that the beast wasn’t going away. I spent the next 10 years engulfed in the alternative world news, from Alex Jones to Occupy Wall St, RT, and on and on. It was a bit overwhelming to say the least (especially Alex!). More...